Women in the Public Eye: Cleavage or Classy? Pick One.

14 Tuesday May 2013

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I’ve been grappling for a while with what it’s like to be a woman in the public eye because it’s not as simple as being a video journalist or being a GameSpot employee. It’s not as easy as it is for guys. I can’t just focus on content creation and being good at my job because I have to consider a whole bunch of other things. Up until twenty minutes ago I thought these things were important, I thought they were proper considerations that I needed to be aware of ALL the time if I want to do this job. Now I think that’s bullshit and I’m going to tell you why.

This morning SourceFed host Meg Turney posted up a picture of herself in a push-up bra (I KNOW you want to see this so here you go) and I reacted with disdain. I had such admiration for her as a bisexual, cool, gamer who hosted a fantastic show. She’s laid-back and intelligent and a lot of the things I aspire to be in a video journalist. She’s also drop dead gorgeous. When I saw that picture I jumped to the same conclusion that a lot of people who aren’t men probably did – she’s selling out, she’s using her boobs to get attention and to garner Twitter followers etc. I went on a Twitter tirade saying she was removing all integrity from her career and proving that she’s just another girl who will exploit herself to get male attention – what I said was fucking stupid. Basically.

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Meg Turney’s Assassin’s Creed Cosplay

She reacted against these types of responses in two different videos and I received a well deserved smack in the face. The things I have come to understand from this industry are mostly things I have gathered as a result of males trying to objectify me or males trying to protect me. Perhaps neither is useful to me deciding who I want to be and how I want to represent that person publicly. I’ve been told not to tweet about my body in a way that might be misconstrued as sexual, I’ve been objectified for wearing a low-cut top and many, many more from both sides of the scale but you know what, I’m saying, “No”. I’m calling bullshit.

Just because I’m a woman talking about video games to a large sect of grown-up, sensible people and a small sect of vocal sexist pigs does not change how I’m going to act. I’m going to be me. I now believe that as long as I’m not showing up to a bikini to work or tweeting propositions to my followers there’s no reason I shouldn’t be exactly who I am. I’ll dress in high-cut t-shirts some days and others I’ll wear the tank tops I’m usually more comfortable in.

I’m not buying into this “women need to act differently to men in gaming JUST because they’re women” anymore. It’s total bullshit and it’s not fair. And, honestly, it’s sexist. Whether it’s people giving me advice for my own good or just a bunch of assholes objectifying there’s no good reason to change myself.

Now I’m not saying I’m going to follow in Meg’s footsteps but I don’t think women who do should be crucified or be accused of selling out their integrity. Everyone has their own attitudes and personality. If she wants to show off her boobs which she’s clearly fond of then who the hell am I to tell her otherwise? Just because she’s a woman, she should be more demure lest she be objectified? How is saying that any better than telling women to take off more clothes in a video? I honestly believe it’s not.

Women should be okay with talking about their bodies and showing them off if they so choose. Yes, there will ALWAYS be gawkers and weirdos but she isn’t dressing that way for them. I never dress that way for them. I want to be able to tweet about my body in a non-promiscuous way without going “Oh but what will the men who follow me think? What if they think it’s racy?”, I want to dress in a way that makes me happy without a thought to what it might make some assholes on the internet think.

If men don’t have to censor themselves I think it’s complete shit that women are asked to, or expected to. As I’ve said, if it’s in line with the company with which they are associated (should they be, and I say this regarding my role at GameSpot too) then there shouldn’t be separate rules for how men and women conduct themselves.

So, screw it, basically. I’m done reviewing myself as a woman in this industry and I’m going to start just seeing myself as a person in this industry. Besides, that’s always how I’ve seen myself outside of it so why should it be any different? I’m not a girl gamer, I’m a gamer. I’m not a female journalist, I’m a journalist. My views are my own and that is plastered on every social media outlet I find myself on so why am I putting myself and my personality in a box that’s seen to be more ‘sensible and polite’ just because I’m a woman?

I’m really interested in what you guys think. Do you think women in the public eye need to be careful? Should we have different rules? Why or why not? Let me know.

The Thin Line Between Directionless and Finding A Passion

01 Wednesday May 2013

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So, lets get that out of the way then. As of today I work full time in my dream position at the online publication I’ve been following since I was a little girl. It’s amazing and exciting but also inevitably terrifying in its new-ness and unpredictability.

Just three years ago I would have been in my first to second year of university. I had no idea this is what I wanted to do. I spent eighteen years of my life dead-set that I wanted to be an actress – I had trained professionally and taken every course and workshop I could get my hands on – then in 2008 I auditioned for full time study at a huge performing arts college in Sydney. They notoriously never took 18-year-olds fresh out of uni but I had to try – obviously I didn’t get in but fortunately I gradually worked out that acting wasn’t the path I wanted to go down.

In 2010 I had just switched out of a Psych degree which was going nowhere fast since I decided I was far more interested in the theory of psychology than the practice of it. Another big reason for me changing out of that degree was due to the fact I didn’t think it would be easy enough to get a job in (I know, this theme of choosing ridiculously off-the-wall jobs carries through all of this).

I was deciding between being an archaeologist, and changing degrees to do so, or being a writer for video games. The former, again, sounded a lot better in theory so I switched to a Media degree to try and get myself some qualifications and learn a bit of writing – which I loved already – and a bit of programming. Programming didn’t pan out so well. I remember attending the very first three hour lecture which started at 6pm and leaving at 7pm, calling my Dad and telling him I would be dropping that class. I hated it. So, video game design probably would not have been on the cards for me.

Fortunately I had also taken web design where I could be creative and make mini-games in CSS and I was loving it and also doing very well at it. This led on to a computer games unit which was run poorly and whilst it let me be around people who cared about what I cared about we weren’t doing much of interest. Our major assignment was to create an educational game about Australian history – I’ll let you make of that what you will.

I had been unemployed for a while by this point if you don’t include doing the odd job at my Mum’s office and, being an HR executive, she had been trawling Seek.com to try and get me off my ass and into a proper workplace. It may also have had something to do with how little I cared about doing her admin work. Fortunately she dug me up the Seek ad asking for a video games journalist to work casually at GameSpot.com.

The interviews went very quickly. I studied for them harder than anything I’ve ever studied for. I called in every favour from my friends to review my work and interview questions and went through more wardrobe options than I’m willing to admit. When they put me in front of a teleprompter I shook like a leaf but I followed it up with a joke and went on with what I had to do. I remember being asked to state three words that described me and one of the ones I chose was ‘critical’. I remember cursing myself for it afterwards because I thought it was too negative, I wished at that point that I had said ‘gamer’ instead – I’m so glad that I didn’t. For my second interview, I made a video feature about Chosen One’s which I then emulated in a more professional manner in this video which remains to this day one of my very favourites.

When Randy called me and offered me the position I remember being polite and enthusiastic on the phone as I accepted and literally jumping for joy in my bedroom when I hung up.

I feel very lucky to be in this industry, working with clever and interesting people who are also close friends. Even when I had no idea what I was doing with my life I knew if I figured it out I’d be alright, I’d make a plan and get there. I’m not saying there wasn’t a little luck involved but I honestly feel that people can get anywhere they want to go with a little effort and a lot of determination. Well, it worked for me anyway =]

Depression Quest: A Retrospective

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

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Don’t let the name fool you, this game is worth your time, and your dollars should you choose to donate them to this otherwise free game.

The aim of this game, from the developers perspective, is to spread information about dealing with depression. It is designed to inform, to provide a window into the mind of a person suffering from depression, and what a perfect window it is. I haven’t read extensively on the developers or their previous works but I can only assume they are sufferers because they seem to understand the things that many people with depression cannot find the words to express.

I’ve been suffering from depression since I was very young. About 11 or 12, I guess. I always over-thought, over-analyzed and stressed myself to the point of chest pains and, in my later years, panic attacks. I never questioned any of it. Even when I was fourteen or so and I was at the worst of it I just rationalized it away as teenage melodrama–I’ve always been quite the self-depricator even in my most arrogant moments. I am a lucky girl in a fortunate position, much like the protagonist in the narrative of Depression Quest. I have money, I don’t go out a lot so I save more than the average person, though this is also because I dislike being outside intensely. I have a loving and supportive family, a kind boyfriend, a reliable best friend and even a few other close friends which is uncommon for a fiercely introverted person like me.

But I’m unhappy. It’s not my life’s fault, it’s not my parent’s fault, it’s not my upbringing or a terrible thing that happened in my life. It’s not even my fault. It’s my brain chemistry, perhaps. But I too often find myself anxious, unwilling to go out, to work or even to do the things that I used to enjoy. That’s depression, or so I was informed last year by a psychologist. That’s also the narrative of Depression Quest, almost to a tee. This game hits home in the sorts of ways that you always imagine these games would never be able to grasp. I also played Actual Sunlight not so long ago which was another impactful indie game about depression but it wasn’t quite as terribly connective as this one.

Depression Quest isn’t just about the end like Actual Sunlight is. It’s about making choices. Which are the right or wrong ones is up to you. It’s about healing and working with your illness, not simply submitting to it. A particularly clever technique is graying out options which would normally be the most attractive because the player character is to depressed to act them out. These include pleasantly going to work or in many cases ‘getting over’ their feelings to go about their day. For many depression sufferers these just aren’t realistic options and the way this is illustrated in the game is fantastic.

I am posting this entry to my GameSpot blog and my personal blog because I feel as if people should be playing this game. I once said on my personal blog that Glee was the most important show on television for exposing issues like the suicide of gay teenagers and bullying (and much more) to a mainstream audience. I feel that this game is important for similar reasons. It’s not so much for sufferers like myself who nod along while watching the protagonist grapple with decisions to medicate or seek cognitive therapy. It’s for the families of sufferers, the friends and lovers and significant others, so that they might understand what is happening. So that they might have a window into such a convoluted and self-destructive illness that has so rarely been properly articulated through any medium – least of all gaming.

This game needs to be played. If you have a spare hour or two, consider it: http://depressionquest.com.

An Unexpected Journey

08 Saturday Dec 2012

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So, I just finished Journey. This won’t be a polished entry, just my thoughts in a horrible draft format that you’ll all have to put up with. Basically, I have a number of feelings and I need to write them down.

Journey is a game that should not be played alone.

I have never logged onto the PSN Store. I’ve never played with people online and I never wanted to. I had to download Journey anyway so I left the Ethernet cable plugged in. Thank god I did.Image

I started the game and fell in love with the concept, I had no instructions but that was alright. The landscape was beautiful and I was happy to find my way through hopping on ancient stones and running through ribbons. Around ten minutes in, however, my peace was disturbed. There was a chirp from somewhere to my right. I had mistaken the shape for a contorted ribbon but it was not. It was a figure who looked just like me. They approached and chirped, keeping their distance for the most part. We respected each other and didn’t want to intrude onto the others play experience given neither of us had asked to be paired together.

We collected mutual ribbons and slowly the feeling that my game had been intruded upon vanished. I was angry that my serene desert had been encroached upon by an unknown clone but I decided I’d have to be stuck with my lot and try to enjoy the game anyway. The ribbons we had collected built a bridge across a great chasm. The figure approached the entrance and then turned back – being a fairly inexperienced platformer I tended to lag behind. My companion stopped and waited, their ambiguous face turned toward me and chirped. Immediately I smiled. As if I was compelled.

I ran up to join them and jumped through the platforms as they appeared. From that moment I was hooked. We ran everywhere together, never lagging far apart. They led me to secret rune locations and we chirped delightedly when we entered new worlds.

ImageWe came across a stone dragon in a later stage and I was knocked down. My friend was much faster than I and despite needing to rush back for me several times, they knelt over my potential corpse in the heavy sleet and chirped frantically until I was revived. I chirped back that I was alright and we proceeded on.

We taught each other to be wary and emulated each others movements and chirps. We developed a method of communication though the game restricted us from knowing each others identities or exchanging proper words. As we had no way of knowing if we were still with each other or if we had been swapped out for other players I would chirp three times with a small gap between each and they would reply with the same melody. As each new location loaded I found myself nervous over whether my companion would still be there or whether I would be alone.

Occasionally we would miss important runes that I would usually hate to bypass but funnily enough I didn’t care. I just wanted to be with my friend, if we were close then that’s what mattered.

When the climate grew cold and winds forced us apart we pressed tightly against each other. When we celebrated a victory we would run through and around each other chirping excitedly. We never stopped talking to one another. Even in the sleet where our rune chirps could barely be seen I noticed my friend’s head bowing as they continued to chirp. A reminder I was not alone, that they would not leave me.

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One perilous situation had us walking along a windy concourse on a cliff. I was blown over. I chirped desperately but I could not see my friend and they had not jumped down. I figured I was abandoned. I ran to the edge and climbed back up, sure enough they had waited for me and we ran towards each other hoping to show some kind of affection, gratitude, loyalty.

When I could not complete things as quickly as them, they would jump down from their progress and show me how to do it. There was no resentment or frustration. Though occasionally I imagine my companion was intending to call me an idiot when they were chirping.

If I had explored these places alone I would feel very different right now. As it is, I’m thankful but I feel riddled with loss. As the game finished it instructed me that I had in fact spent the entire game with one person. Just as I thought. If I have accidently used ‘she’ in this reflection it is because their name was ‘mixiekins’, a girl I could only assume. Given my username is ‘tempertress’ I assume she knew I was a girl too. I imagined my companion as a big brother but perhaps she was a little sister, or a mother.

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I wonder if that makes a difference. It makes me feel like our jumping and mimicking may have been that of kindred genders and ages though I don’t think I would feel any differently were it an elderly man. The important part was that she was there, the whole way through. Even when my scarf was disintegrated and hers was impressive. She would trudge slowly on the ground with me so I could catch up and move on. In the space of two hours I made a friend, explored a world, stuck with her through thick and thin and then lost her again. I found myself frantically searching her username trying to find her when I finished but it was no use. I asked myself what I wanted to say or do and I came up with nothing – perhaps it was for the best. It hurts but I also feel humbled.

Journey is not about the trophies, the runes or, dare I say, perhaps not even the story or the exploration. To me those things were insignificant. They could have been great on their own, sure, but with a companion by my side they were awe-inspiring. They were the monuments that dwarfed us, the puzzles that we triumphed over, the trials we endured and the ending we had earned.

Everyone should play this game.

Caterpillars And Teacups

14 Sunday Oct 2012

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If anyone is particularly interested I have started a Tumblr out of mostly boredom and so I can be creative as well as maintaining my game-related commentary. I like the idea of reblogging but mostly I will be creating my own literary content. There is a short entry on Alice there now.

I will write something related to gaming here soon. Probably.

You can find me at: http://caterpillarsandteacups.tumblr.com/.

Gone Piratin’

06 Monday Aug 2012

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Okay so it’s been… four months since I last posted. Which seems like a horribly long time so I apologize but I missed my little corner of the internet. I’m all wrapped up with uni now which gives me plenty of time to get back to my blogging roots which I love so dearly.

I won’t dwell on that though because there’s more important things afoot in my life and as usual they revolve around games and one in particular. No, it’s not Mass Effect 3 which I am still yet to finish, nor is it any number of the recent releases that have caught my eye (Spec Ops: The Line, for one). It’s a game belonging to somebody who’s something of an evil genius in the gaming industry: Sid Meier. Meier has been popularized the world over for his games that emulate real life in addictive simulations. Whether hitting golf balls, creating civilization itself from scratch or (in my case) sailing the high seas, his games are impeccable. Anybody who has delved into the deep, intricate world of Civ 5 can tell you the turn-based strategy is an addictive time-suck, but in the best way.

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Civilisation V: Not your casual game.

I am not those people though and I’d rather talk about my favourite Sid Meier game, Pirates! (exclamation point intended)

Pirates! Is one of those perfect games that defines your childhood. Outside of my one true love of adventure gaming, Pirates! was my jam. When I wasn’t playing Age of Empires or Heroes of Might and Magic (or any of the other hundred games my outside world hating self delighted in) I was living out the rampaging joys of a 17th century pirate with a big heart and vengeance on his mind. Pirates! is incredibly repetitive, from the jibberish that serves for the respective Governors’ approval that you sank an enemy ship to the mind-numbing dances with the plain/attractive/beautiful Governors’ daughters. Though, for some reason, I’m more than willing to keep trying my heart out to earn promotions for my deeds and extra hearts for dancing well (unless the daughters are plain of course, everybody knows they’re just for practice). The dancing games, ship battles and attacks on the towns are like mini-games that break up the flow of the gameplay exceptionally well from the main mechanic of seafaring.

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A ‘beautiful’ daughter. Tactfully illustrated as to why.

Every gamer has their Pirates! game. That fond memory that they can revisit as an adult and remember how many hours they sunk into something as a kid. I used to play this game with my brother and, as with so many other games of our childhood, like to think without the constant criticism I graciously offered him he wouldn’t have gotten into a law degree. Everybody always asks me if I’m into sports and when I laugh and say no they ask what I played as a kid. This is what I played as a kid. While the kids in my primary school were in the playground role-playing ‘Families’ I was creating the beginnings of a communist empire in Tropico. While the girls in my high school were playing netball I was conquering Cyrodiil with a powered-up Breton.

Treasure these games, other kids might have trophies for their sporting achievements or whatever else the kids are doing these days. Ripsticking? Regardless, I’m more than happy to have games like these in place of those with incredible worlds of nostalgia that are always revisit-able.

My Dearest Shepard

07 Saturday Apr 2012

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I’ve been thinking about the controversy that exploded over the ending of the last Mass Effect game. Now, I’m certainly not going to get into that (mostly because I haven’t played it and am trying in vain to stay away from spoilers) but I do understand how a disappointing ending can let down a series and a fan-base. The reason for this seems to be that the story, in many ways, is not just what is delivered to the player. The story is what we make of it. Yes, the game is on rails (even if there are different paths to take) and essentially we’re completing a pre-made story, but there are elements of the game that tie into a very personal place for the player. For me this is Shepard. But, as many articles have pointed out before me, it’s not the Shepard you see on the Mass Effect box nor the one in the dramatic trailers. My Shepard is the Colonist-born war hero who (spoilers forMass Effect 1) would not let the galaxy suffer for the sake of saving the council.

She’s a paragon for the most part who isn’t afraid to occasionally get her hands dirty as a renegade. She’s a Vanguard and her weapon of choice is a shotgun. She’s tough though compassionate and she cares for her crew but she’ll sacrifice anything for the greater good. She also has a tendency to flirt with whoever happens to be in front of her at the time. Oh, and her name is Aaliyah.

My grand point here is that I created her. Everything she says and every feature of her appearance (sans the staple uber-fit body) has been picked out by me. Sure, she’s my player character but she means a lot to me. Particularly in a game like Mass Effect where you can carry your characters with you it makes a big difference to your player/character bond. I got to the screen where I could change Aaliyah’s appearance. I figured her character model is probably a little dated, her eyes might be a bit small, her ears a little big, but these thoughts were momentary. She ventured through the galaxy and kick several asses while taking numerous names. Who was I to decide to change the way she looked now? So I didn’t. She’s exactly the same and I wouldn’t have her any other way.

It’s for this long, drawn-out reason that I think people have a right to be upset in the ending of this epic trilogy. We belong to this story and these characters as much as those who developed the saga do. I am not the biggest shooter fan nor was I that impressed with the features of Mass Effect 1 but I have and will continue to come back to this saga for Aaliyah Shepard. My Shepard. I care about her journey and her choices. For reference I have just started Mass Effect 2 but I am enjoying it immensely. This is in no small part due to my black-haired, blue-eyed, world saver extraordinaire.

This is and will always be the thing I love about RPGs. Shooters like Call of Duty or even action adventure games like Darksiders or Uncharted will always peg you into these often uninteresting pre-made characters. Even when they are involving and unique like April Ryan from The Longest Journey or Manny Calavera from Grim Fandango, there is a particular delight in creating your very own character. Being able to feel as if you have created and leveled somebody who belongs to the game world is a much more immersive experience than what many other genres are able to offer.

Gamers Aren’t Dumb So Stop It

22 Thursday Mar 2012

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Alright. That “4″ on the date from my last update has been staring at me for two and a half weeks now. I know, this is my weekly blog, I suck.

But since my head is stuck on four, here are my four reasons I haven’t posted in an obscene amount of time:

1. As most of you know, I got a job as a Video Journalist at GameSpot AU. It’s very demanding and very fun.

2. I’m also attempting to finish my Media degree. That’s three days of work a week plus a dozen odd contact hours at uni plus homework equals no entries. Or life.

3. I love you guys too much to post up stuff that I think is boring or not good enough for you all to waste your reading time on.

4. There is no four but it suited the set up. Sorry.

Where was I? Oh right! I’m supposed to blog now. If there’s anything in the gaming world I’m thankful for it’s giving gamers credit where credit is due. The recent dumbing-down of computer games has been on my mind lately ever since I played Beyond Good and Evil. Don’t get me wrong, I love this game, but the way it handholds the player through every puzzle and every mission is infuriating. If you let Jade, your protagonist, wander aimlessly for longer than four seconds you’ll hear your companion subtlety proclaim, “Hey, why don’t we go over there and do this and then we can do that thing that you were just working out how to do?”

Call of Duty: Follow arrow to EndGame

It’s the kind of gameplay that has evolved alongside first-person shooters with constant “meters to current objective” signs and giant flashing arrows showing you exactly where to go. What happened to our beautiful sandboxes? You would never see that kind of pushing in old adventure games which would leave you stranded for days if you couldn’t figure out the puzzle and promised yourself you wouldn’t Google this one after the forty-second time. It’s not just action adventures and shooters that have fallen victim to gamer pandering though, it’s happening in my beloved role-play games too.

Recently I’ve been playing through Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer. If you like complicated RPGs and aren’t afraid of an intricate leveling system check it out. It’s amazing. Current role-play games like Skyrim and even the new Mass Effect games have sacrificed the Dungeons and Dragons based leveling for what I like to call Apple Brand leveling systems. They look pretty, they almost do the same thing, but you have little to no control over what you’re actually doing and they treat you like an idiot. Okay, I hate Apple.

Complexity shown here

I love spending ages distributing points across Endurance, Accuracy and Might just as I enjoy allocating points across various character skills, which are more often than not, only ascertained through specific class selection and an acceptable attribute level. Leveling should be complicated. These are your characters (or character in the case of non-group-based RPGs). I’m sick of seeing star sign skill trees that skimp on the powers list by having “upgrades” of already chosen skills. Mass Effect had an excellent leveling system, it involved different class systems and eventually class upgrades and a number of specific skills for character archetypes. I haven’t started Mass Effect 2 yet but I was informed that this interesting feature was one of the first to go.

What’s happening to us? Are we so lazy that we can’t pick up a game manual any more? My favourite part of pre-gaming used to be getting in bed with the game manual the night before and reading through every skill, spell, class and attribute so I would be all set to play. I like games that developers have clearly put effort into and with an RPG this is essential. Don’t let me down gamer world, let’s see some proper challenges again. I want all my resistances broken up into seven categories and my skill upgrades to be essential, not just recommended. I know some of you are cringing, this is just the way I love gaming.

Give me a challenging adventure game, a sandbox third-person shooter or a complex role-playing game any day.

A Little Bit Of History

04 Sunday Mar 2012

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As usual this week, I have loads of ideas written down for blog entries that have been cultivating for weeks and months and yet I chose to go with one I thought up four seconds ago. It’s this excellent level of forethought towards my blog that keeps you guys coming back, I know. What I want to ramble about today is historical games. I have, for some ridiculous reason, decided to enlist myself in a university class revolving around Rome and the Caesars. This got me thinking that the majority of my ancient history knowledge is largely derived from Xena: The Warrior Princess. That, and hours of Age of Empires and Total War games.

I am a massive fan of games which are derivative of something else, or adapted if you prefer. One of my all time favourite games is Alice, a nasty, dark action adventure based upon the story of Alice in Wonderland. I find games that adapt themselves from one mode of fiction to another clever, with the clear exclusion of movie-based games. The extension of this, however, to create a game that is adapted from a non-fiction, real world event is extremely admirable.

Funny hat dudes with spears

Rome: Total War is a great example of an excellent historical game. There is a significant focus placed upon the largest factors of the period; war and diplomacy. The player is a leader of one of the three Roman factions. These are reflective of the three largest houses of the time; the Julii, Brutii, and Scipiones. The provinces require happy, healthy citizens to provide political support just as they require infrastructure and a strong military force. The player works to expand their empire and conquer unfriendly cities. Perhaps the strongest similarity between the actual period and the game is the emphasis on family.

Though only the male family members are controllable, they can join the family by adoption or marriage. There are naturally large families and heirs to each faction as the process of faction leaders dying in combat, or naturally, progresses as it would in any empire. The Total War series is far from the only game to attempt a solid historical foundation. The entirety of the Age of Empires saga is a perfect example of turning fascinating history into clever, intriguing gameplay. Quite apart from giving me an excuse to avoid studying, it’s an excellent way to introduce kids to periods of history they would likely never find themselves wanting to explore.

Shh-Ha

I’m not claiming that Age of Empires is all that historically accurate, nor am I saying it should replace history classes – or maybe I am, I’m not sure. All I can say is from civilisation to civilisation and working through the several historical campaigns, I got much more knowledge out of that game than two straight years of mandatory Australian history ever gave me. Also, that “Shh-Ha” noise of villager creation will be eternally exciting.

How A Weak Link Can Break A Game

26 Sunday Feb 2012

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I’ve been there, okay? As an eight-year-old I knew if I used my textbook to act as a ruler I could draw my margins a good 5.5 seconds faster than digging my ruler out of my bag. As a twelve-year-old I knew that if I skipped buying lunch I could use my lunch money to buy important things like Evanescene concert tickets. Even now as a twenty-year-old I know that I can skip 90% of my ilectures and marathon listen to them the week before impending assignments or exams. I am all for cutting corners where it doesn’t count. Key word here: doesn’t. For example, if BioWare was paying me a hefty sum to develop a quality sci-fi shooter I would not be cutting corners.

Mass Effect developers, sadly, clearly did not share this mindset. The writers of this game are magnificent, the main plot (while not anything to write home about) is clever and interesting enough to maintain interest in the sometimes strained connections between finding Saren and galaxy-hopping. Some of the characters are interesting and diverse and the lore is incredibly well-nutured. The entire history of the Asari and their culture is enthralling and it’s a joy to listen to Liara tell Shepard all about the intricacies of her race.

Then there’s Kaidan/Carth/your standard macho, slightly-disturbed-by-his-past guy who is such a stereotype I knew all about him without speaking to him. But I would rather spend an extended evening having him cry on my shoulder about Biotic-School than have to listen to Ashley spout one more irritatingly-toned monologue about her sisters. My big problem with the game, though, is not the writers. Nor is it the developers or the publishers. I don’t know if they weren’t getting paid enough or what but it’s very clear the level designers did not care one bit about this game.

Virmire

For every beautiful world like Virmire, there are a dozen other non main-quest-compolsory worlds which go neglected. Every significant world is mapped with the same linear winding driveway from start to finish and if you waver from it your vehicle, Mako, inexplicably “dies”. Alternatively, open-plan worlds will have your uncontrollable, swear-inducing Mako being thrown off cliffs (voluntarily or not) without a scratch. These open plan world always share the same set up. Anomaly, mineral, point of interest. Every single time. Even the anomalies are narrowed to three or four choices to the frequency of which you think they’d stop referring to them as “anomalies”.

As if this wasn’t bad enough every Geth base, Science facility and bad-guy hold up that isn’t a part of the main quest is mapped with exactly the same level design. I mean down to crate placements and enemy spawn-points. If there isn’t enough to fill the template enemy base the doors are simply not coded to open though the rooms behind them still appear on the mini-map. This is quite simply lazy game design. When your only job is to work with the wonderful stories to create interesting and dynamic environments and you’re resorting to copy-pasting that’s a real problem. I visited one room that had been left completely empty, as if they accidentally coded the door to open but did not fill the room. This is the stuff you expect from uni students creating levels, not BioWare.

Ah, it's this room again

Mass Effect is severely let down by the lack-luster level design but it falls back on well constructed characters and an excellent levelling system. As with every roleplay game, it will retain a players interest if there is a well constructed system for character progression. There is a clear parallel between levelling and party strength though this does quickly get to the point where there is little challenge. Very early on in my game I decided to take on Matriarch Benezia. As this game does not let you save in combat I played out that section against Asari commandos four or five times before I beat it. It was extremely satisfying, although detrimental to the life of my keyboard and mouse who were innocent bystanders to my frustration.

When I first saw the size of the galaxy I was overwhelmed and excited. I assumed there would be plenty of exciting worlds like KotOR’s Manaan and Tattooine which had their own stories and undergrowth. But no, most of the planets only come with a short bio, some are surveyable and the others, save a very small sample, are open-plan template worlds as mentioned before. Even the worlds that do have stories are overshadowed by boring driving sections and repetitive combat. They are quickly forgettable, unlike their KotOR counterparts. The side quests are underwhelming and uninspired, often you will reach the end-point of a quest to be delivered with a pop-up explanation of what you found out in one or two sentences and that’s it.

This game commits the cardinal sin for any video game: it gets boring to the point where I’d rather type a 1000-word grouchy post to you guys than play it.

The whole universe, well, not really

I have talked to several people about the underwhelming nature of Mass Effect. They all assure me its successor is worth the play-through though I can see why so many people just get through the main quest and ignore the rest. I am a completist which makes it very hard for me to finish a game while there are still side quests in my inbox but when the developers have barely paid any attention to these sections it makes me question why I should. I’m holding out for Mass Effect 2, BioWare. I hope you live up to the hype next time around. Right now all this game makes me want to do is go play Knights of the Old Republic.

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